I’m trying to find one device that can act as both a Zigbee coordinator and a Thread Border Router. Ideally, I’d like it to work over Ethernet (so I can use it with Zigbee2MQTT).
Right now, I don’t have any Zigbee or Thread devices — I just want to start experimenting without having to buy two separate hubs.
I know the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 USB stick can technically do both, but:
the multiprotocol firmware isn’t really recommended, and
I’d rather have something Ethernet-based since my HA setup runs on a Raspberry Pi on the third floor. I’d like to place the Zigbee/Thread device in a more central spot, but I can’t move the Pi because of the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor ).
After a bit of digging, I found these options:
It’s unclear to me if those would work with HA and their compatibility.
The first one seems to work with Zigbee Sonoff devices only and seems to require cloud access (see ), which I’d like to avoid.
The second one seems to work with Tuya (only?) but it’s unclear how that would integrate with HA.
The Moes/Tuya hub looks like it’s more for the Tuya ecosystem, but it’s not clear how well it plays with Home Assistant.
Has anyone here tried either of these?
Any recommendations for something that can handle both Zigbee and Thread locally?
Or am I overthinking this and should just get separate devices?
If you divide and conquer, by opting for two independent devices, you can go cheaper and better, as well as upgrade independently. Not the answer you want to hear, but still the one I am going to provide.
My understanding is that these are Chinese made devices so I don’t really mind buying them from Aliexpress, but as is always the case with that store I have no idea which trader represents an actual manufacturer or a reseller. Ideally I would like to buy from the original manufacturer. Also I see there are a ton of options, and I’m not familiar enough with this/these protocols to tell what the difference between the devices are so any help would be appreciated.
PS: These devices are all POE. That is ideal for me, but depending on your switch hardware it might not be ideal for everyone.
Ah thanks for clearing that up. Then I can probably buy directly from them. Shipping is sadly a bit higher from Ukraine, but not nearly as bad as it is for people outside the European continent
(One of ) the reason(s) I’d like to stick with one device is that:
it’s visually much cleaner (and my partner would really appreciate that)
one device less to manage
Of course, I’m aware of the drawbacks:
SPoF
added complexity
I see that they even have some stuff with zWave, in addition to ZigBee and Thread. I’ll have a look there, if they are not really aesthetically pleasing
PoE is not an issue, I’m already planning to move to a managed switch with PoE support
There is also a version of the dual radio one that supports USB passthrough if you need to connect with a dongle. I assume it allows you to use proprietary solutions and still access output through the network connection. Even if you never use it the added USB feature doesn’t seem to add much to the cost so I think I’ll go with that one even though I have no plans to use the USB feature at the moment.
).
